DELEGATION OF EUROPEAN REGIONAL AUTHORITIES TO VISIT CROATIA IN OCT

OCT $ STRASBOURG, Sept 25 (Hina) - A congress of local and regional authorities in Europe is to send a delegation to Croatia in October in order to check first-hand statements made in a letter forwarded to the congress by five opposition parties of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the congress' secretary general, Rinaldo Locatelli, said in Strasbourg on Thursday. The five opposition parties which forwarded the letter are the Social Democratic Party, the Primorje-Gorski Kotar Alliance, the Croatian People's Party, the Croatian Social Liberal Party, and the Istrian Democratic Party. Congress president Claude Haegi received the letter in question a week ago and decided a delegation should visit Croatia in October and request of its government to provide explanations concerning a crisis in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, said Locatelli. During the visit, he added, the congress would try to urge the Croatian government to settle the crisis in the right way, but did not intend to take any measures prior to the visit. Two weeks ago, 20 opposition councillors of the Primorje- Gorski Kotar County Assembly handed in a collective resignation on their functions in the assembly. This was a protest against the inability to exert their right to work within the assembly on the basis of a majority of vote, and on account of the expiry of a legal deadline for calling the continuation of a constituent session discontinued on 12 June. (hina) ha jn 251527 MET sep 97